Summary of the impact

This research has led the field in understanding the hurts involved in acts of hate crime for victims and offenders. Much of the research has been commissioned and funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK. The research has impacted upon:

• The allocation of Open Society Foundations funding for anti-racist organisations in Western Europe for services supporting victims;
• The raising of awareness about the support needs of victims and offenders for governmental and non-governmental organisations at cross-national and country level in the EU and at regional and national level in the UK;
• The direct delivery of support services and interventions against hate crime in Lancashire.

Underpinning research

An innovative body of research carried out at Lancaster University on the hurts involved in acts of `hate crime' for victims and offenders underpins this case study. While most victims of crime suffer some psychological and emotional trauma, research evidence now clearly indicates that victims of 'hate crime' are more likely than other victims to report such effects. This research has made a substantial contribution to the evidence. The understanding developed has important implications for supporting victims and for preventing offending, implications which have been followed through in policy and practice informed by the research.

A significant step forward in the evidence was taken by Iganski's research on the greater reported impact of racist crimes, published in the monograph Hate Crime and the City in 2008. While early research in the 1990s conducted mainly in the United States began to illuminate the particular psychological and emotional impacts of 'hate crimes', the research at Lancaster University overcame methodological limitations of earlier studies by using large random samples of victims, multivariate analyses, and multiple controls, with British Crime Survey (BCS) data. The research led the field in its innovation. Extensions of the analysis since then by Iganski and colleagues initiated and commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) using more recent sweeps of the BCS, continues to lead the field into even further understanding of the impacts and consequences of hate crime beyond racist crimes to other types of identity crime in which victims are targeted because of their religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age. The research is without precedent and match internationally. It is cited internationally, and has resulted in a range of impacts described in this case study. Some involve direct impacts on service delivery for victims and offenders.

The hurts involved in `hate crime' also pertain to the perpetrators. While understanding about the motivating impulses of hate crime offenders has been increasingly drawn out by research across a number of countries, research carried out at Lancaster University has made a unique contribution by illuminating and sharing practitioner experience in working with hate crime offenders in general and in intervening with the offenders' felt hurts in particular. Informed by his earlier research on the perpetrators of racist violence funded by the ESRC's Research Violence Programme David Smith (Lancaster, Sociology) began to develop ideas on what would constitute a helpful and effective approach to intervention with such offenders in the community. On the strength of this published work Smith was commissioned to evaluate one of only two specialist probation programmes in the UK for racist offenders at the time (Palmer and Smith 2010). Smith subsequently collaborated with Iganski on an international survey of rehabilitation programmes for hate crime offenders, commissioned and funded by the EHRC (Scotland) (2011), which brought together an international research team of leading `hate crime' scholars and practitioners. The research report, Rehabilitation of Hate Crime Offenders, was launched at an engagement event organised by the EHRC in Edinburgh in March 2011 attended by Scottish Government officials, senior representatives from criminal justice agencies and NGOs in Scotland. The event was reported on the STV six o'clock news, in national Scottish newspapers, and in over thirty local newspapers in Scotland. More recently, Iganski has continued the work by updating this project's findings with evidence gathered by the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO) (2012) in a project commissioned by NIACRO for their Challenge Hate Crime Programme.

References to the research

Iganski's foundational book for the body of research which informs this case study, Hate Crime and the City, has been positively reviewed in scholarly and practitioner journals: Ethnic & Racial Studies (32, 2009), the European Journal of Probation (Vol. 2, No. 2, 2010), Policing & Society (Vol. 20, 1, 2010) Probation Journal (Vol. 59, 4, 2009), the Runnymede Bulletin (No. 335, 2008), and Youth Justice (Vol. 10, No. 2, 2010). The review in the European Journal of Probation concluded that the" "impact of this book comes from the knowledge that the vast majority of `hate crime' offenders are not abhorrently different, pathological, pre-meditated bigots capable of extreme violence, but everyday ordinary people that are presented with opportunities in the context of their everyday lives. A concerning, yet invaluable insight demanding further attention to better meet the needs of victims, offenders and communities in tackling `hate crime'."

These reviews provide an indicator of the minimum 2* quality of the research underpinning the book Hate Crime and the City and this case study. The referenced EHRC reports were reviewed by the EHRC's senior research and policy staff.

Details of the impact

The impact of the research reaches to international levels and national and local levels in the UK, and has significance for the allocation of funding for NGOs in Western Europe, national-level policy priorities in the UK, and service delivery at regional-level in the UK. The changes resulting from the research include:

Impact on funding for NGOs in Western Europe for action against racist violence and support for victims

Iganski's research on the harms of hate crime led to a commission for a cross-national EU study of racist violence which in turn led to the allocation of funds to NGOs by the Open Society Foundation. The impacts of the research on the allocation of funding and support for victims at international-level is described by testimony provided for this case study by the Director of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR):

"ENAR...the largest European advocacy network on racial equality — has been collaborating with Dr Iganski since 2009, when ENAR decided to become more active in advocacy in the field of racially motivated hate crimes and enlisted his expertise. ENAR had been impressed at the time by Dr Iganski's book Hate Crime and the City and his sensitive approach to victims, which takes into account the reality of the perpetrators as well. First, we invited Dr Iganski to speak at an ENAR seminar on supporting victims of racially motivated hate crimes. ENAR members provided extremely positive feedback to his presentation and work. As a consequence, ENAR decided to cooperate with him further. In 2010, the Open Society Foundations commissioned ENAR to compile a trend mapping report on racist violence and crimes in Europe. Dr Iganski was offered the coordination role of the research, guiding and overseeing the national authors, and drafting the final European report (Iganski 2011 Racist Violence in Europe, Brussels: ENAR, launched at a meeting held by the European Parliament's Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup in March 2011. This report had a tremendous impact both for ENAR's future funding as well as on the funding policies of the Open Society Foundations. It confirmed that anti-racist activities and organisations in Western Europe need to be supported to compensate for the sharp decrease in public funding, on the one hand, and the dramatic surge of anti-democratic political parties and movements, which had an impact on victims of racist violence, on the other hand. As a consequence, the Open Society Foundations commissioned further studies that led to the establishment of the Xen Fund for anti-racist organisations working in Western Europe in late 2011."

Impact on national-level policy for tackling hate crime in the UK

Iganski's research illuminating the psychological and emotional impacts of `hate crime' upon victims has informed national-level policy in the UK as testified by the Hate Crime Programme Manager at the Ministry of Justice, UK, who has written that:

"My personal view is that hate crime tends to cause more harm than comparable `random' crimes, that they have a broader effect on communities and create an enhanced fear of crime. Whilst these views were commonly accepted, it was important that they could be substantiated and for that we relied on the research of key academics. Amongst the most valuable was the research of Dr Paul Iganski from Lancaster University. His work to understand the findings of the British Crime Survey was invaluable to us because it was the most definitive evidence that hate crime did have a greater psychological impact on the victims." (Giannasi, P. [2014] `Academia from a Practitioner's Perspective: A Reflection on the Changes in the Relationship between Academia, Policing and Government in a Hate Crime Context' in Neil Chakraborti and Jon Garland (eds.) Responding to Hate Crime: The Case for Connecting Policy and Research, Bristol: Policy Press).

And in testimony specifically provided for this impact case study Paul Giannasi states that:

"Since I came into post in 2007, his (Iganski's) influence has been significant on a formal research basis but also on a collaborative and informal level. Most notably, though, his analysis of the British Crime Survey has underpinned policy. It provided us with conclusive proof that hate crime 'hurts more' than similar non-targeted crime, a principle that has motivated government and CJS agencies and was cited in Government Action Plans."

Impact on service delivery at regional level in the UK

Following a commissioned evaluation of their Race Hate Awareness & Prevention service, Iganski joined with the Preston & Western Lancashire Racial Equality Council and Lancashire Constabulary to apply his research findings on the impacts and consequences of hate crime to developing the design and delivery of their `Effective Interventions in Addressing Hate' training in 2012/13, for staff and patients at Lancashire Care NHS Trust's medium secure forensic psychiatric hospital, Guild Lodge. In the sessions Iganski presented his key research findings on the harms of hate crime and also understandings of how perceived hurts can provide the contexts for offenders' actions. Informed by these understandings, in group work exercises and discussions involving case studies of incidents that have occurred in the hospital, participants discussed how they might support staff and patients who are victimised in hate incidents. Evaluation comments provided by participants demonstrated the impacts of the understandings shared, and changes in thinking among participants, about the harms of hate crime:

• `Affects the person internally as it is about their personality — something they can't change'.
• `Understand definitions and psychological impact more'.
• `Helpful to understand legal and psychological aspects of hate crime — a learning curve for me'
• `More empowered how to intervene if patients are abusive'

In testimony provided for this case study, the manager of the Race Hate Awareness & Prevention service has noted that "Dr Paul Iganski's evaluation of our project has been invaluable in further highlighting the harms caused by hate and the vital role NGOs play in supporting victims of hate crimes. The evaluation has allowed victims' voices to be heard and this will undoubtedly shape future policies and service provision in this area. Dr Paul Iganski's wider work on the harms caused by hate is firmly embedded within the psyche of many practitioners and policy makers in this field and it continues to inform both strategic and grass roots responses, as there is an enhanced understanding of why hate hurts more".

Sources to corroborate the impact

Individual users/beneficiaries:

Police Superintendent, Hate Crime Programme Manager
Ministry of Justice
(Can testify as to the impact of the research on national-level policy for tackling hate crime in the UK.)

Head of Policy & Parliamentary Affairs
Equality & Human Rights Commission
(Can testify as to the influence the research has had on hate crime offenders.)

Director of Independent Hate Crime Hub CIC
C/o Diversity Unit
Preston Police Operating Centre
(Can testify as to the impact on service delivery for supporting hate crime victims and hate crime prevention activities at regional-level in the UK.)

Director of Adult Services,
NIACRO — Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders
(Can testify as to the impact the research has had on hate crime offenders.)

Factual statements:

Director, ENAR — European Network Against Racism
(Can testify as to the impact of the research on funding for NGOs in Western Europe for action against racist violence and support for victims.)